Rugby coach seeks bylaw change in attempt to run for Greenwich school board

Greenwich High School rugby coach Joe Kelly may be running out of options to try and be both a coach and a member of the town’s Board of Education. But he is not giving up and is looking at asking the board to change its bylaws.

Photo: Bob Luckey / Bob Luckey

GREENWICH — Despite a determination from the town attorney that he cannot be a member of the Greenwich Board of Education, a prospective candidate is not ready to give up.

Town Attorney Wayne Fox offered his legal opinion Thursday that Joseph Kelly cannot join the school board while remaining in any capacity as a rugby coach in the school district.

But Kelly is not giving up hope of doing both. He is attempting to run for the Republican nomination for a seat on the Board of Education, and the Republican Town Committee is looking to nominate him as one of its candidates in this fall’s municipal election.

Concerns were raised that Kelly could face a conflict of interest because he is the paid coach of the Greenwich High School rugby team.

In a legal opinion sent out late Thursday afternoon, Fox cited Connecticut General Statutes 10-232 that “no member of a board of education shall be employed for compensation by the board of which he or she is an employee in any position in the school system.”

Kelly had hoped to develop a compromise in which he would either take no salary for his coaching position, which has a yearly salary of $7,527 set by a contract between the town and the Greenwich Education Association, or in which he would not formally be a coach but rather a volunteer adviser to the coaching staff.

But in citing the Board of Education’s Code 9270, a school district bylaw, Fox found that was not a workable option. He quoted the code as saying that a board member shall not have any direct pecuniary interest in a contract with the district and cannot “furnish directly any labor, equipment or supplies to the district.”

“While I understand the good faith attempt to address the underlying issue, the courts have always made it clear that words have meaning and one should look to the simple language of the document in question,” Fox said in his statement. In this case, he said, the language was clear that a board member could not provide labor to the district even in an advisory role.

A coach does not report directly to the Board of Education, but a coach does report to the GHS athletic director and headmaster, both of whom report to the superintendent of schools. The superintendent is the only employee in the district who reports directly to the school board.

Kelly said Thursday that he was not happy with the decision and was not giving up yet. He said he had been told that the bylaw in question could be changed by a two-thirds vote of the Board of Education. And because of that possibility, Kelly said he planned to reach out to the board members to see if they would support the change.

No members of the Board of Education could be reached for comment Thursday evening.

Calling it a “very difficult decision” Kelly said he has a great desire to serve the town in an expanded role, which is what has spurred his decision to enter politics. But he also mentioned his commitment to the rugby program, which has won nine championships during his 10-year tenure.

He has previously said he wanted to explore all options before making a decision. Kelly said he pledged to Republican Town Committee Chair Richard DiPreta that he would have a final decision on Friday.

The RTC will hold its candidate nominating meeting in July.

There will be one Republican vacancy on the school board because Lauren Rabin will not seek a second term; she is instead running for a seat as a selectman. Board of Education Secretary Barbara O’Neill is running for re-election, and Karen Kowalski is running for the first time for the school board.

Additionally, another Republican candidate who has yet announced could run for the board. Political parties in Greenwich can nominate as many as four and as few as two candidates for the Board of Education, which is made up of eight members and is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

Kelly had originally been seeking to run for the Board of Selectmen because Republican Selectman John Toner is not running for re-election. However, when Rabin got into that race, Kelly switched to the Board of Education race.

Ken Borsuk has been a reporter for Greenwich Time since 2015 but has been covering Greenwich news since 2000. He has extensively covered local government including the Board of Selectmen, Board of Estimate Taxation and Representative Town Meeting.